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08/13/2007-CC-Minutes-Work SessionMINUTES: City Council Workshop August 13, 2007 PRESENT: Mayor Pro-Tem Glenn Ervin, Councilman Robert Patton, Councilman Andy Garza, Councilman Thomas Muir MEMBERS ABSENT: Mayor Joe Higgs, Councilman Mike Walker OTHERS PRESENT: City Manager Mike Brice, City Secretary/Asst. City Manager Rose Chavez, City Engineer Rob Woods, Water/Wastewater Supt. Eddie Branham, Electric Supt. Mike Prater, Economic Development Director Cecile Carson, Fire Chief David Pennington, City Mechanic Kristen Lindberg, Municipal Court Clerk Christy Punches, Librarian Vicky Elieson, Police Chief Curtis Amyx. 1. Mayor Pro-Tem Glenn Ervin called workshop to order. 2. City Manager, Mike Brice addressed City Council and advised that he will provide Council with enough information to make an informed decision on the budget. He advised that the budget currently is based on the $0.59960 tax rate. The roll back tax rate can go as high as $0.70580. He advised Council that if they wanted to do anything else in the budget then they needed to consider a higher tax rate. City Manager gave thanks of appreciation to Rose for all the work she did on the budget which allowed him to get closer to a completed budget to present to Council. City Manager continued with discussion concerning the 2007-2008 budget for next year. City Manager discussed the revenues in the General Fund and Enterprise Fund. City Manager advised that the budgeted revenues this year are very conservative. Councilman Garza asked why the revenues from water and sewer tap fees were not the same amount. City Secretary advised that the amount for the actual tap for water is different than the sewer. Discussion continued on revenues. City Manager continued with discussion concerning the contractual fees in Mayor & Council. City Secretary advised that the budget in the General Fund will always be higher due to the 2002 Settlement. In the Library, there were additional funds allocated for personnel, to allow the Library hours to be extended. There were additional funds budgeted for books. The line item for $14,000 in capital outlay will be reduced. In this line item it included carpet throughout the building and after inspecting the building, the conference room is the area that is needing new carpet at this time. The line item will be reduced to $2,000.009 In the Administration Budget, he is budgeting for an Administrative Assistant, the City Secretary has her own Assistant, and he feels both of those positions are needed and will be needed more in the future. He will generate enough work for one person. e would like to add to the General Fund and the Enterprise Fund $17,500.00 i Hn salaries for that person. In the Engineering Department salaries increased due to fees for contractual were reduced. The line items for dues and registration fees were discussed. Discussion concerning tuition reimbursement for all employees. City Manager advised he will work this out at a later date. Manager advised that there are two vehicles budgeted in the Police Department, which will be purchased, instead of having a lease agreement. City Manager advised he would like to revise his equipment replacement policy. Salaries and overtime were discussed. City Manager indicated that 5% of the total salaries for overtime was not unreasonable. There were not any raises allocated in the budget this year. This will be something that he will address later during the budget year. Discussion followed concerning Animal Control, the Fire Department and Ambulance. City Manager advised that the Fire Department and Ambulance budget will be a work in progress all year long. It is his goal and intent that the Revenue side of EMS pay for the expense side of the Ambulance budget. Salaries will be contractual. Currently, the Personnel in the Fire Department are used for EMS. The fee for Ambulance Service has been set at $750.00 and there are always additional charges that are added to the fee. City Manager discussed a possible charge on the water bill which would allow people the service, and help subsidize the service fee to the citizens in the city limits. Additional personnel in the Municipal Court was discussed. City Manager advised that he did not include that part-time position in the Court budget. There was a correction to aline item that needed to be moved from R & M Building to R & M Equipment. Currently, the salaries for custodial are taken from salaries in Administration Department. This budget year those expenses are grouped into a department to monitor cost more effectively. Salaries have increased in the Building Inspection department to allocate for Code Enforcement, a Building Inspector, and the Secretary. Discussed allocating funds for a new vehicle for building inspections. City Manager will add that into the budget. City Manager discussed the separation of Streets and Parks Departments. He discussed that there will be street construction within the next few years and he needs a full-time superintendent that can stay on top of these projects. He discussed the salary increase in that department. Discussion followed regarding the employees and utilizing employees within each department. The worker's compensation rate the city is currently paying for one employee is extremely high. This is the reason the salaries are budgeted higher in Parks. Discussion continued that employees in parks that work in streets are still covered if they are injured in streets. He advised that John will remain in Parks. He will try to fill the position internally; however, if he can't, he will consider someone outside of city staff. Discussion concerning repair of vehicles and whether they are getting repaired. City Secretary advised that the deductibles are $1,000.00 and if it does not exceed that amount then the department has to repair those vehicles out of repair and maintenance. Discussion. City Manager advised that the Debt Service is exactly what it is and those numbers cannot be changed. Discussed the interest on the 4A and 413 funds. Discussion continued on certain line item expenses. In vehicle maintenance, the capital outlay expense for a lift was $30,000.00. City Manager advised that he revised the line item from $5,000 to $15,000.00 to be budgeted from General Fund and Enterprise Fund. Discussion continued on the additional bay that is needed in the mechanic shop. City Manager advised that the Sullivan Center and Community Center budgets are lower than last year. In Economic Development there is $70,000 budgeted for planning and zoning revisions. He has visited with Cecile and he is not sure that it will cost that much, however, it is better to budget higher than lower. He is proposing to request from 4A and 4B $40,000.00 each to be transferred to General Fund for economic development. He advised that he will be make this request next week in their budget workshops. He asked council to let him know if they supported this request before he approached those boards. He would like, in the future, for the budget in that EDC department to be split in three ways, between the City, 4A and 4B. Discussion continued with Council supporting City Manager's request concerning the $40,000.00. Solid Waste Budget is an in and out cost to IESI. Discussion continued on the length of the contract and the franchise fee of 6%. In Data Processing, dues and registrations were also higher than last year and it was discussed. Council inquired if the City paid the entire tuition for city employees. City Secretary advised that Jack Smith, (ex- City Manager) negotiated a contract with Samantha Renz concerning her education. City Secretary advised she had checked with the CPA and he indicated that paying tuition for employee is not any different from paying for the training of any employee, and the example he referred to was fire and EMS employees. Discussed the contracts in place for those employees attending college. Council asked that City Manager to review this item. City Manager advised his philosophy is different concerning tuition. He supports education and that all employees that have this type education need to have contracts. This will be an item he will addressed at a later date with Council. The overtime in Data Processing was discussed and City Secretary advised that when an employee resigns that the staff in place has to pick up that workload plus keeping up with their own. The policies in place, which were set by our CPA, require that a cashier does not balance the drawer and staff that signs checks cannot balance the drawer, which leaves only two people in the office. There are times when the drawers do not balance and that creates overtime or there are issues with billing. City Manager continued to give a review of the proposed budgets for the water department, wastewater and wastewater collections. The contractual fees and water purchase from Upper Trinity were discussed. Discussion continued concerning the contractual fee of $280,000 that was budgeted in 2006/2007. Eddie Branham, Water/Waste Water Superintendent, advised that he was not sure what that line item was budgeted for. City Manager also indicated that the price for the engineering service from Carter and Burgess is too high. He will be requesting RFP's in the future. Discussed that the electric department needed an amount budgeted for meter maintenance. The amount that was agreed to budget was $10,000.00. Discussion continued concerning the debt service. City Manager indicated that staff will make the necessary changes to the budget as discussed and will get corrected copies to the council. He asked council that unless the Council wanted to have another meeting, this should be the budget that will be in place. Council agreed. 3. Meeting Adjourned.